His Home at 'Sky's Edge'

By

Jim Fusilli

Dec. 11, 2012 5:49 p.m. ET

Sheffield, England

If good taste prevails, "Standing at the Sky's Edge" (Mute) by Richard Hawley will appear on many "best of 2012" lists. The album goes beyond the rich and lovely ballads of his previous recordings, adding squalls of electric guitars and waves of synthesizers to create a roiling platform for his warm, sturdy baritone. The result is an expression of calm, reasoned anger rather than all-out rage. At Fagan's, his favorite pub here in his hometown, Mr. Hawley said that the disc was inspired in part by the 2010 accidental death of his friend Tim McCall, a Sheffield guitarist.

"It was just a jolt," said Mr. Hawley, 45, "and it made me reconnect with the instrument I love."

ENLARGE

Richard Hawley's new album deserves to be among the best of the year.
Getty Images

Though Mr. Hawley is best known in the U.S. for his lush solo albums, he played guitar in the alt-rock bands Longpigs and, briefly, Pulp. The guitar, he said, played a crucial role when he awoke to his calling.

"I was 9 and my daddy came up and he was angry," he recalled over a pint of Guinness. "I was playing my guitar. 'Why are you still up?' he said. 'Dad, there's this song and I don't know what it is.' He was grumpy, but I played it. He said, 'It's yours.' He took the guitar off me and kissed me on the head. I lay in the dark thinking: 'What does that mean?'"

Mr. Hawley committed to a music career at age 17. "I just left home. I wasn't just perched on the edge of the nest. I threw myself out." He felt he had no choice but to become a musician. "There was nothing else."

He recorded two albums before his stint with Pulp. His third, "Lowedges," brought attention to his voice and crooning delivery, a style associated with mid-'60s British orchestral pop that influenced the likes of Paul Buchanan,Nick Lowe and David Sylvian. There's a touch of Rick Nelson and Roy Orbison in there too; while out on Broad Lane to smoke a cigarette, Mr. Hawley regaled his visitor with Orbison's "Blue Bayou."

Mr. Hawley's music is deeply rooted in this town. His grandfather and father were steelworkers who played music. "Music was all around me from acorn to tree," he said. His band of locals has been together 13 years, and most of his albums bear the names of locations here.

"I was brought up in a rich, beautifully dark culture," he said. "Steelworkers work a hard life, quite brutal, the sort that makes you laugh until you cry. I have friends who have been ground down. But my dreams have never involved swimming pools in Los Angeles." He added, "I lived in London for about six weeks. I was in love, but even love couldn't keep me in that place."

In 2006, Mr. Hawley was nominated for a Mercury Prize for his album "Coles Corner." He didn't win, prompting Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys, a Sheffield band that captured the award, to say: "Someone call 999. Richard Hawley's been robbed." But the disc gave Mr. Hawley's career a boost. He went on to record his superior discs "Lady's Bridge" and "Truelove's Gutter," produce an album by Duane Eddy, back Nancy Sinatra and record with the Arctic Monkeys as Richard Hawley and the Death Ramps. This year, "Standing at the Sky's Edge" was also nominated for a Mercury Prize, which Alt-J won for its album "Awesome Wave."

"At the end of 'Truelove's Gutter,' I realized I had the opportunity to sit still and watch the grass grow," he said. "I thought the next album would be a pastoral affair. But then Tim died." Mr. Hawley was upset further when a newly elected government announced it wanted to sell the woodlands where he walked with his grandfather as a child and still allows his dogs to roam. He directed his emotions into a successful campaign to block the sale—and into "Standing at the Sky's Edge."

"The songs didn't need a 100-piece orchestra. They needed me to be around with one guitar," he said. "I let it rip, but not just to turn it into a midlife-crisis situation. There's a golden rule with me: The song must always win." The album reflects how Mr. Hawley and his band can sound in concert. "Live, things get more raucous," he said. "A lot of my stuff lends itself to a form of carnage."

Mr. Fusilli is the Journal's rock and pop music critic. Email him at jfusilli@wsj.com or follow him on Twitter: @wsjrock.

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